Tran Vang Sao
Encyclopedia
Tran Vang Sao is a Vietnam
ese poet.
He was born in Huế
, where he now lives. His father was killed by the French during the First Indochina War. During the Vietnam War
, he was a contributor to the underground newspaper Thanh Niên Chống Mỹ [Youths against America]. He joined the National Liberation Front in 1965, lived in areas under its control, broadcasting propaganda until 1969, when he was injured and removed to the north. In spite of his allegiance to the Communist cause during the war—his pen name, "Vàng Sao", means "Yellow Star", a reference to the national flag—he has been blacklisted since 1972 for his candid depictions of social conditions inside Vietnam. He's been harassed constantly, even imprisoned, his manuscripts confiscated. His poetic voice is bemused, ironic, deliberately banal, a reaction against the dogmatic bombast of many of his contemporaries. His poems have been translated into English and published in the journals American Poetry Review (Vol.28/No.1, Jan/Feb 1999) and The Literary Review (Winter 1999).
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
ese poet.
He was born in Huế
Hue
Hue is one of the main properties of a color, defined technically , as "the degree to which a stimulus can be describedas similar to or different from stimuli that are described as red, green, blue, and yellow,"...
, where he now lives. His father was killed by the French during the First Indochina War. During the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, he was a contributor to the underground newspaper Thanh Niên Chống Mỹ [Youths against America]. He joined the National Liberation Front in 1965, lived in areas under its control, broadcasting propaganda until 1969, when he was injured and removed to the north. In spite of his allegiance to the Communist cause during the war—his pen name, "Vàng Sao", means "Yellow Star", a reference to the national flag—he has been blacklisted since 1972 for his candid depictions of social conditions inside Vietnam. He's been harassed constantly, even imprisoned, his manuscripts confiscated. His poetic voice is bemused, ironic, deliberately banal, a reaction against the dogmatic bombast of many of his contemporaries. His poems have been translated into English and published in the journals American Poetry Review (Vol.28/No.1, Jan/Feb 1999) and The Literary Review (Winter 1999).
External links
- four poems, translated into English by Linh DinhLinh DinhLinh Dinh is a Vietnamese-American poet, fiction writer, translator, and photographer. He was a 1993 Pew Fellow.-Biography:...
- Tôi bị bắt, a prison memoir (in Vietnamese)